There are many reasons not to antagonize other motorists on Florida roads. These include potential harm to one’s self, damage to one’s vehicle, adding points to your driving record and having to answer to law enforcement officers — or maybe even a judge — for your actions.

Here’s another: Someone with a smartphone could be filming your unseemly behavior. (As we all know, once something makes it onto the internet, it stays there forever.)

It happened Feb. 20 in Stuart. A motorist noticed two vehicles driving erratically, so he reached for his phone and started filming. The result: fascinating footage of fisticuffs in the middle of a busy roadway.

Before it was over, the three brawlers had snarled traffic with their street bout and involved other motorists, some of whom stopped to break up the fight.

Two of the fighters were arrested later that day. Eric Gerstmann, 47, and Sean Gerstmann, 29, both of Port St. Lucie, were each charged with disorderly conduct, according to arrest affidavits. Eric Gerstmann also was charged with resisting arrest without violence.

Stuart police spokesman Jeff Kittredge said the two men, who were in a car together, were driving “semi-aggressively” in front of the other vehicle. The Gerstmanns wouldn’t allow the other car to pass.

There has been a spate of road-rage incidents recently in the Sunshine State:

» A pregnant woman told Lee sheriff’s deputies she was punched by another woman in an alleged road-rage incident in North Fort Myers. Deputies arrested Nicole Lawler, 22, of Cape Coral, who is facing assault charges.

» A St. Augustine man allegedly pulled an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle on another motorist in Butler Beach. St. Johns County sheriff’s deputies charged a man with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill.

» A motorist on Interstate 295 in west Jacksonville was shot in the back and wounded by another driver March 1 in an apparent road-rage incident. Jacksonville police are searching for a newer model gray or silver Cadillac.

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A 2017 study by The Trace, a self-described “independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to expanding coverage of guns in the United States,” found that incidents where someone in a car brandished a gun in a threatening manner or fired a gun at another driver “have more than doubled nationwide in the last two years, from 247 in 2014 to 620 in 2016.”

Sadly, the Sunshine State is the national leader.

“Florida led the nation in road rage incidents with 147 reported from 2014 to 2016, outpacing states with larger populations,” according to the study. “Thirty-three people were wounded and 15 were killed in the Florida shootings.”

The possibility the other driver might be packing a weapon should give everyone pause before choosing to escalate a minor traffic infraction (or perceived offense) into a full-blown confrontation.